By ANDREW CRUM
Staff Writer
Metro-area volleyball coaches always are looking for a way to get their teams off to fast start to the season.
Whether it is their players playing together on club teams over the summer, scheduling playoff-level, non-district competition or playing in highly competitive tournaments, coaches want teams to jell quickly during the early part of the season.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial, which was narrowly defeated by Mission Veterans Memorial in five games Tuesday, welcomed a tough, early season opponent.
“Mission Veterans was in the Sweet 16 last year. They have good tradition at the school of being a very good (volleyball program),” Brownsville Veterans coach Lisa Mares said. “I knew when I scheduled games for this year, I wanted tough games like this.
“That’s what’s going to prepare us for district, so I wanted a hard, non-district match.”
Mission Veterans coach Diana Lerma agreed with the use of the tactic.
“As coaches, we put the best teams (on our early schedule) in order to prepare for the playoffs,” she said. “(Brownsville Veterans) is very well coached and you can’t get better than the competition down here.”
Hanna has opened up the last two seasons with a match against Port Isabel, which has won back-to-back District 32-3A titles and moved up to Class 4A this year.
“I knew we were facing a strong team, they might be 4A, but they play like a 6A,” Hanna coach Ansgar Hagemann said after the Golden Eagles were defeated in four games.
Rivera, which is dealing with the loss Crystal Perez — one of the best area players during the last couple of years — to graduation, doesn’t mind losing to playoff caliber teams as long as lessons are being learned.
“Our (non-district) setup are hard teams, good teams,” Rivera coach Elizabeth Avelar-Guerra said to the Monitor after McAllen High defeated the Lady Raiders. “I told them, ‘At this point, it’s OK to lose. You got to learn from playing these teams because they’re good.”
TOUGH TOURNAMENTS
Teams use early season tournaments to play as many games as possible in a few short days. It also benefits teams to prepare for the oftentimes grueling district season.
These types of tournaments include the recent McAllen High Poundfest that included each of the Brownsville schools, Los Fresnos and Port Isabel. The Lady Falcons reached the championship game before falling to McAllen Rowe in a tightly contested match.
Los Fresnos will travel to San Antonio this week to compete in the San Antonio North East ISD tournament, which features some of the top teams in the state last season from San Antonio, Dallas and Austin.
Los Fresnos coach Becky Woods was eager for her team to compete against the level of competition expected in San Antonio.
“I have eight girls back from last year,” she said. “We need to get (that) confidence on the court.”
Lopez, Rivera, Pace, Brownsville Veterans and Porter will travel to Mission for the Mission volleyball tournament. Port Isabel plays host to the Volley at the Beach tournament. Both tournaments begin today.
Next week, Metro-area schools will compete in the Sharyland Invitational tournament. Two weeks later, district play begins for all of the metro-area schools.
INJURY BUG BITES HANNA
Unfortunately for Hanna, early season injuries have put a slight damper on a promising season.
Sasha Rae Brown, Halley Penrod and Angela Reyna are all dealing with various injuries. Even worse for the Lady Eagles is that each was a projected starter this season.
Hagemann wasn’t sure when any of his players would return, but he remained optimistic.
“All serious injuries,” he said. “But hopefully we can get them back soon.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.